Farewell Sermon Matthew 16:18 February 21, 2016 Pastor Keith Johnson www.redeemerlutheran.us I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Matt. 16:18 Church members are sometimes hard pressed to say something to their pastor after the service. Over the course of 40 years a lot of people have said a lot of things to me. - "Pastor, You always manage to find something to fill up the time." - "Pastor, I don't care what they say, I like your sermons." - "Pastor, If I'd known you were going to be good today I'd have brought a neighbor." - "Pastor, Did you know that 25 panels make up the reredos and if you look close right in the center you can see Felix the cat" - Pastor, We shouldn't make you preach so often." My favorite was a little girl, after a Lenten service, commenting on my robes who said, Pastor, you look just like a Queen. Martin Luther gave ten qualifications for the Pastor: (1) He should be able to teach plainly and in order. (2) He should have a good head. (3) Good power of language. (4) A good voice. (5) A good memory. (6) He should know when to stop. (7) He should be sure of what he means to say. (8) He must be ready to stake body and soul, goods and reputation on its truth. (9) He should study diligently. (10) He should suffer himself to be criticized by everyone. That s quite a list. To it I would add 1 more: A Pastor must always point people to Christ!
J. I. Packer wrote: "You cannot at the same time give the impression that you are a great preacher and that Jesus Christ is a great Savior. He said, If you call attention to yourself and your own competence, you cannot effectively call attention to Jesus and his glorious sufficiency. The job of a pastor is to point people to Jesus. The job of a pastor is to point people to Jesus. That s why St. Paul wrote this, Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done. The pastoral office was ordained by God to raise up men to preach the Word of God, administer the sacraments, and forgive and retain sins. Redeemer has never been my church. Redeemer has never been your church. Redeemer has always belonged to Jesus Christ. He said, I will build My church. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you are a part of His church. What makes a church is not a building. The church is people. It is the people who are joined together because of the relationship that they have with Jesus Christ. When the Holy Spirit brought Jesus into your heart your relationships changed. God became your Father. Jesus became your Lord. Other Christians became your brothers and sisters. It is the Bible that defines what the Church is - not us. The Bible tells us that the church is three things: NUMBER ONE: The Church is a FAMILY. When Jesus enters our heart we are born into a new family. We become Christ s Church. We become the family of God- children of our heavenly Father. We are given a new purpose for living. Instead of serving sin and self, Jesus who lives within us, leads us to serve Him and others. Our relationships change and so do our priorities. A top priority of families is to build relationships with one another. If you have been around a church for any length of time you know that you will encounter some unique individuals. The church is made up of all kinds of people. And if we are honest, some of them are harder to love than others.
After a town-wide revival, three pastors were discussing the results with one another. The Methodist pastor said, The revival worked out great for us! We gained four new families. The Presbyterian pastor said, We did even better than that! We gained 6 new families. The Baptist pastor said, Well, we did even better than that! We got rid of our 10 biggest trouble makers! How do you relate to those with whom you disagree? No one is here by accident. Jesus said, I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH. Everyone who is here has been placed here by God. They are part of our family. Christ didn t die for only the lovable but also for the unlovable. I can t imagine what my life would have been like if I had never been a part of this faith family. There are certain words that I use to describe the people in this church. Loving. Faithful. Encouraging. Supportive. Devoted. Compassionate. Prayerful. Spiritual. But that s not all. The Bible also says: The Church is a FELLOWSHIP. In the dictionary the word fellowship is both a noun and a verb. Our fellowship here is both a noun and a verb also. We are a fellowship and we fellowship together. What is fellowship? The best definition I have is "Two people in the same boat." We re headed in the same direction. We re going to the same place. As Christians, we re all headed to heaven. Therefore a top priority in fellowship is harmony. If we are going in the same direction if we are going to an eternal home we are going to be together for a long time and we need to live together in harmony. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and they know Me. Because of this fact a top priority in the church is togetherness. We want to know Jesus and be known by Him. As a fellowship we desire to grow ever closer to Jesus & ever closer to each other. But that is not all the Bible teaches about the Church it also says: The Church is a BODY. We are a body, not a business. We are an organism, not an organization. Therefore whatever your gifts and talents consist of - you are needed by the body. You have been placed here to help the whole body. For a body to function properly it needs all its parts - it needs all its members. It needs arms, legs, hands, and feet. It needs all of its members for it to function to its fullest ability. Therefore, a top priority in the body is unity with diversity.
Have you noticed we re all different? We have different colored hair. We have different color eyes. We have different finger prints. We have distinctly different DNA. We re different ages. That s the way God has made us. That s the way God has placed us together. God loves that. God loves diversity but He also wants us to be united in our diversity. We re different in many ways yet we have the same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have unity with diversity. The nature of the church will never change. If we try to treat the church as a business or as just another organization we are doomed for failure. It is God who defines who we are and how we are to function. He also defines our purposes. We can define our purpose here in four words: Love God, Love People. Jesus taught us, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, & with all your mind....and You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matt 22:37 How do we love God and love people? We worship. We fellowship. We learn more about Jesus through Bible study. We minister to one another. We reach out to people who don t know Him. We have five purposes - Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry and Outreach. We seek the lost. We share The Good News with those who have not heard it. This is outreach. We help the hurting. We welcome people into the fellowship which we have with God and each other. Because we want to be healthy as Christians we learn God s Word and apply it to our life. We call this discipleship. We exalt God our Maker, our Creator, our Savior and our Lord in everything we do. We worship Him through everything we do. We live a life of worship to God. That is what we have been called to do. That is what God expects us to do. For us to SHINE is the mandate given by Christ Himself. Jesus said, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 We are God s church. God s people. God s committed community. Called to be godly. I am going to leave you with three convictions I have about The Church. CONVICTION #1: JESUS LOVES HIS CHURCH. I am absolutely convinced without a shadow of doubt that Christ loves His Church. He loves this church. He loves Redeemer. The Bible says that Christ shed His blood for The Church. Acts chapter twenty reads: Therefore take heed to
yourselves and to all the sheep, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. Acts 20:28 This verse tells us that the church was "purchased with His own blood." His own blood. The Bible instructs husbands to love their wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Ephesians 5:25 What did Christ do for the Church? He gave Himself for her. He gave His life for the life of the Church. There is no doubt that Jesus loves His church. He cherishes His church. He treats her as a precious jewel. How many of us would be willing to give our lives for our families? Probably all of us! Most of us though have never been faced with that decision. Jesus has. He was asked, "Will you die for your family? Will you die for your bride? Will you die for the Church?" Jesus said, "Yes!" He said, "Of course I will!" And He did! He gave His life for her. He gave His life for us. We are His church. Redeemer is His church. Often we say that Christ died for my sin. He did die for me to take away my sin and bring me back to God. That s true. He also did that for you. But that is not what Acts 20:28 says. This verse tells us that Christ died shed His blood - sacrificed Himself gave Himself for the Church. That s how important Jesus considers His Church. Jesus loves His Church Christians that say I love Jesus but I don t need to be involved in The Church are immature. They just don t get it. The Church is who Jesus died for. The church is made up of people that Jesus loves. The Church is made up of people that Jesus died for. The Church is made up of people that Jesus laid down His life for. That is what the church is. That is how important Jesus sees the Church. We are God s committed community whom Jesus shed His blood for. If you are a Christian - you love what He loves. You should love the Church. In fact you are commanded to love the Church. I. John 3:16 reads, By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Who are the brethren? The brethren are God s people. The brethren is the Church. We are the Church. We are God s people. Jesus LOVES HIS CHURCH. He loves Redeemer. CONVICTION #2: JESUS WANTS UNITY IN HIS CHURCH. No family is perfect. Every family is dysfunctional. It s just that some are more dysfunctional than others. But you need to stick up
for your family. Love is more important than politics. Love is more important than little petty differences. We don t have to agree with each other to be family. We all have the same Savior. We have the same Lord. God is our Father. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We fellowship together. We enjoy each other s company. We are in the same army. We are on the same side. There is one enemy that we are fighting against - his name is Satan. We don t need to fight with each other. We need to be joined together because we have a common enemy. He is Satan. Look at what it says in John 8:44: He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Satan is the one we need to fight against not each other. There are five times- five times- in the New Testament where God tells Christians not to argue with each other. Why? Because God loves unity. John chapter seventeen is a prayer of Jesus. You know what the theme of that prayer is? It is a prayer of unity for God s people. Jesus prayed that His people would be one just as He and the Father are one. Jesus prayed that we may be one. That we might be united together. That we might live in harmony. That we may be in unity. Jesus wants unity in His church. We must do what Jesus has called us do. Unite together. That s how Jesus wants to build His church. Men, women, and children- all from different backgrounds yet all working together as one. We are one because God is one. CONVICTION #3: JESUS CHURCH WILL LAST FOREVER. Governments will not last forever. Nations will not last forever. Businesses will not last forever. The Roman Empire is gone. The Soviet Union is gone. The Berlin wall is gone. But Christ s church is still here after over 2000 years. Jesus said: I will build My church & the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. The entire universe was created for God s family. What is God s family called? It s called the church. God created us to spend eternity with Him. That was God s plan from the beginning of time. The Church will be in Heaven. Christ died to save the church. It will last forever and He wants you to be a part of it.
Look at what Jesus said in John chapter fourteen: In My Father s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. The Book of Revelation says this: And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21:4 I want to go to a place where there is no more pain. No more sorrow. No more crying. No more dying. Don t you? How do you get there? Romans chapter ten tells us: If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 Jesus loves His church. Jesus wants unity in His church. The church will last forever. The church is a family. The church is a fellowship. The church is a body. You are more than just a member of this church. You are a part of this ministry. You are one through whom the work of Christ is done. And it can only be done through you. Ask yourself the question What kind of church would Redeemer be if every member was just like me? We must always be prepared to speak for Christ. Witness for Christ. Defend our faith. There are times when we must lead or start the conversation. THIS SHOWS THAT WE ARE INTERESTED IN PEOPLE & IN POINTING THEM TO CHRIST. The saying is true: People don t care how much we know until they know how much we care! We must show that we care for people. As Paul told the Galatians Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of God. What are your deepest hopes and hurts? What are your fondest dreams and desires? What are your frustrations and fears? What are your worries and anxieties? Will being here make any difference? Do you believe that the Living Christ is here? Do you feel the presence of God here? Do you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to work in this place and at this time? Do you
believe that He wants to do so through you? What do you really expect God can and will do through His church in this place? Through you? Through your family? Through Redeemer? Charles Spurgeon was right when he said, "We have great needs, but we have a great Christ for our needs!" These are the lyrics of a popular contemporary song. It was written by Brendan Graham and Rolf Lovland. It is song by Josh Groban. It communicates what Christ is ready to do for us and through us. "When I am down and, oh my soul so weary; When troubles come and my heart burdened be; Then I am still and wait here in silence, Until You come and sit awhile with me. There is no life, no life without its hunger. Each restless heart beats so imperfectly, But when You come and I am filled with wonder, Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity. You raise me up so I can stand on mountains, You raise me up to walk on stormy seas, I am strong when I am on Your shoulders, You raise me up to more than I can be." That s what Jesus has done for me. That s what Jesus has done for you. He has raised us all up- in Him- to be more than we could otherwise ever have been. Then He placed us into this church. Working together the best for us is yet to be. May God bless His church. And may God bless Redeemer. May the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep you in a saving in Jesus.